If you are trying to get a job as a developer, focus the majority of your time in your portfolio.

Make sure you SHOW , don’t tell.

But unless you are a designer, *showing* your engineering skills may be tricky.

This is a thread about portfolios. A to blow their minds.

If you want to impress, and you want people to listen to you, words won’t matter and you have to bring solid, demonstrable evidence of delivered value.

You don’t want to interview without a portfolio. You’ll be disappointed.

Let's see how you can structure yours:

Add four sections to your portfolio:

A section about yourself
A section about your work
A section about your education
A section so they can contact you

Ideally, you publish this online (but a PDF also works.) You can use GitHub Pages for free to host it!

In the section about yourself:

Tell me who you are
Tell me what are you looking for
Tell me what you are good at

This should be simple. Maybe a couple of paragraphs. Don’t let this section run too long and distract from the work that you’ll showcase later.

In the section about your education:

List your formal education
List your Bootcamp if you went to one
List any courses you have taken
List any certifications you have achieved

Anything that has contributed to the knowledge you have should go here.

In the section with your contact information:

List your name, email, phone number
List your GitHub profile
List your LinkedIn profile

Do not list any links that aren't work-related.

The core of the profile goes into the section about your work. Here are some general rules:

Show your best work first
Only show work that’s relevant
It should not be longer than 5 projects
Consider adding testimonials

For each project, include the following information:

Project name
Description
Tech stack
Your role in the project (how did you contribute?)
Results (tangible, measurable)
Link to the application (if available)
Link to the code (if available)

If your work is protected and you can’t show the code or much information about it, share what you can:

Code snippets
Description of your collaboration
Any results that don’t disclose the nature of the project

Something is better than nothing.

If you are just starting, you can do the following:

Build a site. For free. For nobody. Put it up. Repeat.
Take a course. Or two. Three is better. Mention it.
Create a blog. Tell a story. Link to it.
Package code samples. Bring them.

Here are a few questions you want to ask yourself about your portfolio. If you aren’t clear about the answer, it means you haven’t finished yet:

1. Do I know what this person is looking for in a job?
2. Do they have adequate communication skills?
3. Can they deliver value?

4. Do they write clean, well-documented code?
5. Do they test their work?
6. Do they explain their decision-making process?
7. Do they know the architecture of their solutions?
8. Do they like what they do?
9. Do I know how to get in touch?
10. Do I want to work with them?

If you’ve been around, and you can’t show something, you don’t deserve the position. If you were interviewing with me, that will be the end of the conversation.

Unfortunately, this is very common.

It’s one of the reasons you are getting rejected. Again and again.

I’ve interviewed very junior people that have busted their asses to impress. They have gotten the job.

I’ve interviewed very senior people that think the world owes them something. They didn't get the job.

A portfolio will help your case. Tremendously!

Go and make yours!